![National Socialist swastika (framed in red)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/National_Socialist_swastika_%28framed_in_red%29.svg)
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
n, as well as some
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
and
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
and by
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
s.
It continues to be used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in
Indian religions
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification of ...
, including
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, and
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...
.
It generally takes the form of a
cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
, the arms of which are of equal length and perpendicular to the adjacent arms, each bent midway at a right angle.
The word ''swastika'' comes from sa,
स्वस्तिक, svastika, meaning "conducive to well-being".
In
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, the right-facing symbol (clockwise) () is called ', symbolizing ("sun"), prosperity and good luck, while the left-facing symbol (counter-clockwise) () is called ''sauwastika'', symbolising night or
tantric aspects of
Kali
Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hinduism, Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In t ...
.
In
Jain symbolism, it represents
Suparshvanathathe seventh of 24
Tirthankara
In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (Sanskrit: '; English: literally a ' ford-maker') is a saviour and spiritual teacher of the '' dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a '' tirtha'', which is a fordable pass ...
s (
spiritual teacher
This is an index of religious honorifics from various religions.
Buddhism
Christianity
Eastern Orthodox
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Protestantism
Catholicism
Hinduism
Islam
Judaism ...
s and
saviours), while in
Buddhist symbolism
Buddhism, Buddhist symbolism is the use of Symbol, symbols (Sanskrit: ''pratīka'') to represent certain aspects of the Gautama Buddha, Buddha's Dharma (teaching). Early Buddhist symbols which remain important today include the Dharmachakra, Dharm ...
it represents the auspicious footprints of the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
.
In several major
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
religions, the swastika symbolises lightning bolts, representing the
thunder god
Polytheistic peoples from many cultures have postulated a thunder god, the personification or source of the forces of thunder and lightning; a lightning god does not have a typical depiction, and will vary based on the culture. In Indo-European c ...
and the
king of the gods, such as
Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
in
Vedic Hinduism,
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
in the
ancient Greek religion
Religious practices in ancient Greece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. The application of the modern concept of "religion" to ancient cultures has been ...
,
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
in the
ancient Roman religion
Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule.
The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, ...
, and
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...
in the
ancient Germanic religion.
The symbol is found in the archeological remains of the
Indus Valley Civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
and
Samarra
Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...
, as well as in early
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and
Christian art
Christian art is sacred art which uses subjects, themes, and imagery from Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, including early Christian art and architecture and Christian media.
Images of Jesus and narrative ...
work.
Used for the first time by far-right Romanian politician
A. C. Cuza
Alexandru C. Cuza (8 November 1857 – 3 November 1947), also known as A. C. Cuza, was a Romanian far-right politician and economist.
Early life
Born in Iași, Cuza attended secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Saxony, Germany, ...
as a symbol of international antisemitism prior to World War I, it was a symbol of
auspiciousness
Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...
and good luck for most of the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. until the 1930s,
when the German Nazi Party adopted the swastika as an emblem of the
Aryan race
The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...
. As a result of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, in the West it continues to be strongly associated with
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
,
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
,
white supremacism
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
, or simply evil. As a consequence, its use in some countries, including Germany, is prohibited by law. However, the swastika remains a symbol of good luck and prosperity in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain countries such as Nepal, India, Thailand, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, China and Japan, and by some peoples, such as the
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
people of the Southwest United States. It is also commonly used in Hindu marriage ceremonies and
Dipavali
Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is ...
celebrations.
In various European languages, it is known as the ''
fylfot
The fylfot or fylfot cross ( ) and its mirror image, the gammadion are a type of swastika associated with medieval Anglo-Saxon culture. It is a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90° or close angles, radiating in the same direc ...
'', ''gammadion'', ''tetraskelion'', or ''cross cramponnée'' (a term in Anglo-Norman
heraldry
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
);
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
: ;
French: ;
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
: ;
Latvian: ''
ugunskrusts
Ugunskrusts ( Latvian for 'Fire Cross'; other names — ''Cross of Fire'', '' Pērkonkrusts (Cross of Thunder (Thunder Cross))'', ''Cross of Perun (Cross of Perkūnas)'', ''Cross of Branches'', ''Cross of Laima'') is the swastika as a symbol ...
''. In
Mongolian it is called хас (''khas'') and mainly used in seals. In
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
it is called 卍字 (''wànzì''), pronounced ''manji'' in
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, ''manja'' (만자) in
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
and ''vạn tự / chữ vạn'' in
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
.
Reverence for the swastika symbol in Asian cultures, in contrast to the stigma attached to it in the West, has led to misinterpretations and misunderstandings.
Etymology and nomenclature
![Snoldelevsunwheel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Snoldelevsunwheel.jpg)
The word ''swastika'' has been used in the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
since 500
BCE
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...
. The word was first recorded by the ancient linguist
Pāṇini
, era = ;;6th–5th century BCE
, region = Indian philosophy
, main_interests = Grammar, linguistics
, notable_works = ' (Sanskrit#Classical Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit)
, influenced=
, notable_ideas=Descript ...
in his work ''
Ashtadhyayi''. It is alternatively spelled in contemporary texts as ''svastika'', and other spellings were occasionally used in the 19th and early 20th century, such as ''suastika''. It was derived from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
term (
Devanagari
Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...
), which transliterates to ' under the commonly used IAST transliteration system, but is pronounced closer to ''swastika'' when letters are used with their English values.
An important early use of the word swastika in a European text was in 1871 with the publications of
Heinrich Schliemann
Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeologi ...
, who discovered more than 1,800 ancient samples of the swastika symbol and its variants while digging the
Hisarlik
Hisarlik ( Turkish: ''Hisarlık'', "Place of Fortresses"), often spelled Hissarlik, is the Turkish name for an ancient city located in what is known historically as Anatolia.A compound of the noun, hisar, "fortification," and the suffix -lik. The ...
mound near the Aegean Sea coast for the history of Troy. Schliemann linked his findings to the Sanskrit .
The word ''swastika'' is derived from the Sanskrit root , which is composed of 'good, well' and 'is; it is; there is'.
The word occurs frequently in the
Vedas
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
as well as in classical literature, meaning "health, luck, success, prosperity", and it was commonly used as a greeting.
The final is a common suffix that could have multiple meanings. According to
Monier-Williams, a majority of scholars consider it a
solar symbol
A solar symbol is a symbol representing the Sun.
Common solar symbols include circles (with or without rays), crosses, and spirals.
In religious iconography, personifications of the Sun or solar attributes are often indicated by means of a hal ...
.
The sign implies something fortunate, lucky, or auspicious, and it denotes auspiciousness or well-being.
The earliest known use of the word swastika is in
Panini's ''Ashtadhyayi'', which uses it to explain one of the Sanskrit grammar rules, in the context of a type of identifying mark on a cow's ear.
Most scholarship suggests that Panini lived in or before the 4th century BCE, possibly in 6th or 5th century BCE.
By the 19th century, the term ''swastika'' was adopted into the English lexicon, replacing ''gammadion'' from Greek . In 1878, Irish scholar
Charles Graves used ''swastika'' as the common English name for the symbol, after defining it as equivalent to the
French term ''croix gammée''a cross with arms shaped like the Greek letter
gamma
Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...
(Γ). Shortly thereafter, British antiquarians
Edward Thomas and
Robert Sewell separately published their studies about the symbol, using ''swastika'' as the common English term.
The concept of a "reversed" swastika was probably first made among European scholars by
Eugène Burnouf
Eugène Burnouf (; April 8, 1801May 28, 1852) was a French scholar, an Indologist and orientalist. His notable works include a study of Sanskrit literature, translation of the Hindu text ''Bhagavata Purana'' and Buddhist text ''Lotus Sutra''. He ...
in 1852, and taken up by
Schliemann in ''Ilios'' (1880), based on a letter from
Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...
that quotes Burnouf. The term ''sauwastika'' is used in the sense of "backwards swastika" by
Eugène Goblet d'Alviella
Eugène Félicien Albert, Count Goblet d'Alviella (10 August 1846 – 9 September 1925) was a lawyer, liberal senator of Belgium and a ''Professor of the history of religions'' and rector of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He was the fa ...
(1894): "In India it
he ''gammadion''bears the name of ''swastika'', when its arms are bent towards the right, and ''sauwastika'' when they are turned in the other direction."
Other names for the symbol include:
* ''tetragammadion'' (Greek: ) or ''cross gammadion'' ( la, crux gammata; French: ), as each arm resembles the Greek letter Γ ()
* ''hooked cross'' (German: ), ''angled cross'' (), or ''crooked cross'' ()
* ''cross cramponned'', ''cramponnée'', or ''cramponny'' in heraldry, as each arm resembles a
crampon
A crampon is a traction device that is attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and ice ...
or angle-iron (german: Winkelmaßkreuz)
* ''
fylfot
The fylfot or fylfot cross ( ) and its mirror image, the gammadion are a type of swastika associated with medieval Anglo-Saxon culture. It is a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90° or close angles, radiating in the same direc ...
'', chiefly in heraldry and architecture
* ''tetraskelion'' (Greek: ), literally meaning 'four-legged', especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare
triskelion/triskele reek:
* ''
ugunskrusts
Ugunskrusts ( Latvian for 'Fire Cross'; other names — ''Cross of Fire'', '' Pērkonkrusts (Cross of Thunder (Thunder Cross))'', ''Cross of Perun (Cross of Perkūnas)'', ''Cross of Branches'', ''Cross of Laima'') is the swastika as a symbol ...
'' (Latvian for "Fire Cross"; other namesCross of Fire, Pērkonkrusts (Cross of Thunder (Thunder Cross)), Cross of
Perun
In Slavic mythology, Perun (Cyrillic: Перýн) is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris, eagle, f ...
(Cross of
Perkūnas
Perkūnas ( lt, Perkūnas, lv, Pērkons, Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic god of thunder, and the second most important deity in the Baltic pantheon after Di ...
), Cross of Branches, Cross of
Laima
Laima is a Baltic goddess of fate. She was associated with childbirth, marriage, and death; she was also the patron of pregnancy, pregnant women. Laima and her functions are similar to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
In Latvia
In Latvian mythology, ...
)
* ''whirling logs'' (Navajo): can denote abundance, prosperity, healing, and luck
Appearance
All swastikas are bent crosses based on a
chiral
Chirality is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object.
An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is distinguishable from ...
symmetry, but they appear with different
geometric details: as compact crosses with short legs, as crosses with large arms and as motifs in a pattern of unbroken lines. Chirality describes an absence of
reflective symmetry, with the existence of two versions that are
mirror image
A mirror image (in a plane mirror) is a reflected duplication of an object that appears almost identical, but is reversed in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface. As an optical effect it results from reflection off from substances ...
s of each other. The mirror-image forms are typically described as left-facing or left-hand (卍) and right-facing or right-hand (卐).
The compact swastika can be seen as a chiral irregular
icosagon (20-sided
polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
) with fourfold (90°)
rotational symmetry
Rotational symmetry, also known as radial symmetry in geometry, is the property a shape has when it looks the same after some rotation by a partial turn. An object's degree of rotational symmetry is the number of distinct orientations in which i ...
. Such a swastika proportioned on a 5×5 square grid and with the broken portions of its legs shortened by one unit can
tile the plane by
translation
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
alone. The Nazi swastika used a 5×5 diagonal grid, but with the legs unshortened.
Written characters
The swastika was adopted as a standard character in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
, "" () and as such entered various other
East Asian languages
The East Asian languages are a language family (alternatively ''macrofamily'' or ''superphylum'') proposed by Stanley Starosta in 2001. The proposal has since been adopted by George van Driem.
Classifications Early proposals
Early proposals of s ...
, including
Chinese script
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
. In Japanese the symbol is called or .
The swastika is included in the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
character sets of two languages. In the Chinese block it is U+534D
卍 (left-facing) and U+5350 for the swastika
卐 (right-facing); The latter has a mapping in the original
Big5
Big-5 or Big5 is a Chinese character encoding method used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau for traditional Chinese characters.
The People's Republic of China (PRC), which uses simplified Chinese characters, uses the GB 18030 character set inst ...
character set, but the former does not (although it is in Big5+). In Unicode 5.2, two swastika symbols and two swastikas were added to the
Tibetan block: swastika , , and swastikas , .
Meaning
European hypotheses of the swastika are often treated in conjunction with
cross symbol
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
s in general, such as the
sun cross
A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle.
The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of ...
of
Bronze Age religion. Beyond its certain presence in the "
proto-writing
Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in Eastern Europe and China. They used ideograph ...
" symbol systems, such as the
Vinča script
Vinča ( sr-cyr, Винча, ) is a suburban settlement of Belgrade, Serbia. It is part of the municipality of Grocka. Vinča-Belo Brdo, an important archaeological site that gives its name to the Neolithic Vinča culture, is located in the vill ...
, which appeared during the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
.
North pole
According to
René Guénon
René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as ''Abdalwâhid Yahiâ'' (; ''ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥiā'') was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having writte ...
, the swastika represents the north pole, and the rotational movement around a centre or immutable axis (''
axis mundi
In astronomy, axis mundi is the Latin term for the axis of Earth between the celestial poles.
In a geocentric coordinate system, this is the axis of rotation of the celestial sphere.
Consequently, in ancient Greco-Roman astronomy, the '' ...
''), and only secondly it represents the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
as a reflected function of the north pole. As such it is a symbol of life, of the vivifying role of the supreme principle of the universe, the
absolute God
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
, in relation to the cosmic order. It represents the activity (the Hellenic ''
Logos
''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...
'', the Hindu ''
Om'', the Chinese ''
Taiyi'', "Great One") of the principle of the universe in the formation of the world. According to Guénon, the swastika in its polar value has the same meaning of the
yin and yang
Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. In Chinese cosmology, the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy, organized into the c ...
symbol of the Chinese tradition, and of other traditional symbols of the working of the universe, including the letters Γ (
gamma
Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...
) and G, symbolising the
Great Architect of the Universe of
Masonic
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...
thought.
According to the scholar Reza Assasi, the swastika represents the north
ecliptic north pole
An orbital pole is either point at the ends of an imaginary line segment that runs through the center of an orbit (of a revolving body like a planet, moon or satellite) and is perpendicular to the orbital plane. Projected onto the celestial sphe ...
centred in
ζ Draconis, with the constellation
Draco
Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon.
Draco or Drako may also refer to:
People
* Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived
* ...
as one of its beams. He argues that this symbol was later attested as the four-horse chariot of
Mithra
Mithra ( ae, ''Miθra'', peo, 𐎷𐎰𐎼 ''Miça'') commonly known as Mehr, is the Iranian deity of covenant, light, oath, justice and the sun. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing ...
in ancient
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian culture. They believed the cosmos was pulled by four heavenly horses who revolved around a fixed centre in a clockwise direction. He suggests that this notion later flourished in Roman
Mithraism, as the symbol appears in Mithraic iconography and astronomical representations.
According to the Russian archaeologist
Gennady Zdanovich
Gennadii Borisovich Zdanovich (Russian: Геннадий Борисович Зданович; 4 October 1938 – 19 November 2020) was a Russian archaeologist based at the historical site of Arkaim, Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Zdanovich led the excava ...
, who studied some of the oldest examples of the symbol in
Sintashta culture
The Sintashta culture (russian: Синташтинская культура, Sintashtinskaya kul'tura), around 2050–1900 BCE, is the first phase of the Sintashta–Petrovka culture. or Sintashta–Arkaim culture,. and is a late Middle Bronze Ag ...
, the swastika symbolises the universe, representing the spinning constellations of the
celestial north pole
The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's rotation around a fixed axis, axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently dire ...
centred in
α Ursae Minoris, specifically the
Little
Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt
* ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film
*The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...
and
Big Dipper
The Big Dipper ( US, Canada) or the Plough ( UK, Ireland) is a large asterism consisting of seven bright stars of the constellation Ursa Major; six of them are of second magnitude and one, Megrez (δ), of third magnitude. Four define a "bowl" ...
(or Chariots), or Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.
Gennady Zdanovich
Gennadii Borisovich Zdanovich (Russian: Геннадий Борисович Зданович; 4 October 1938 – 19 November 2020) was a Russian archaeologist based at the historical site of Arkaim, Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Zdanovich led the excava ...
"О мировоззрении древних жителей «Страны Городов»"
''Русский след'', 26 June 2017. Likewise, according to René Guénon the swastika is drawn by visualising the Big Dipper/Great Bear in the four phases of revolution around the pole star.
Comet
![Mawangdui_Astrology_Comets_Ms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Mawangdui_Astrology_Comets_Ms.JPG)
In their 1985 book ''
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
'',
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...
and
Ann Druyan
Ann Druyan ( ; born June 13, 1949) is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning American documentary producer and director specializing in the communication of science. She co-wrote the 1980 PBS documentary series ''Cosmos'', hosted by Carl Sagan, ...
argue that the appearance of a rotating
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
with a four-pronged tail as early as 2,000 years BCE could explain why the swastika is found in the cultures of both the
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
and the . The
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
''
Book of Silk
The ''Divination by Astrological and Meteorological Phenomena'' (), also known as ''Book of Silk'' is an ancient astronomy silk manuscript compiled by Chinese astronomers of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD) and found in the Mawangd ...
'' (2nd century BCE) depicts such a comet with a swastika-like symbol.
Bob Kobres, in a 1992 paper, contends that the swastika-like comet on the Han-dynasty manuscript was labelled a "long tailed pheasant star" (''dixing'') because of its resemblance to a bird's foot or footprint.
Similar comparisons had been made by J.F. Hewitt in 1907, as well as a 1908 article in ''
Good Housekeeping
''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good House ...
''. Kobres goes on to suggest an association of mythological birds and comets also outside of China.
Four winds
In
Native American culture
Native American cultures across the United States are notable for their wide variety and diversity of lifestyles, regalia, art forms and beliefs. The culture of indigenous North America is usually defined by the concept of the Pre-Columbian ...
, particularly among the
Pima people
The Pima (or Akimel O'odham, also spelled Akimel Oʼotham, "River People," formerly known as ''Pima'') are a group of Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona, as well as northwestern Mexico in ...
of
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, the swastika is a symbol of the four winds. Anthropologist
Frank Hamilton Cushing
Frank Hamilton Cushing (July 22, 1857 in North East Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania – April 10, 1900 in Washington, D.C.) was an American anthropologist and ethnologist. He made pioneering studies of the Zuni Indians of New Mexico by enter ...
noted that among the Pima the symbol of the four winds is made from a cross with the four curved arms (similar to a broken
sun cross
A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle.
The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of ...
), and concludes "the right-angle swastika is primarily a representation of the circle of the four wind gods standing at the head of their trails, or directions."
Prehistory
![لاخ مزار](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AE_%D9%85%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1.jpg)
The earliest known swastika is from 10,000 BCEpart of "an intricate meander pattern of joined-up swastikas" found on a late
paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
figurine of a bird, carved from
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
ivory, found in
Mezine
Mezine is a place within the modern country of Ukraine which has the most artifact finds of Paleolithic culture origin. The Epigravettian site is located on a bank of the Desna River in Novhorod-Siverskyi Raion of Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukrain ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. It has been suggested that this swastika may be a stylised picture of a
stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...
in flight. As the carving was found near
phallic
A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic.
Any object that symbolically—or, more precisely ...
objects, this may also support the idea that the pattern was a fertility symbol.
In the mountains of Iran, there are swastikas or spinning wheels inscribed on stone walls, which are estimated to be more than 7,000 years old. One instance is in Khorashad,
Birjand, on the holy wall
Lakh Mazar
The Lakh Mazar inscription is a pre-historic stone wall estimated to be more than 7,000 years old and located near the Kooch village, about 29 km away from Birjand, Iran. It is the most valuable memorial plaque in eastern Iran due to its div ...
.
Mirror-image swastikas (clockwise and counter-clockwise) have been found on ceramic pottery in the
Devetashka cave,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
, dated to 6,000 BCE.
Some of the earliest archaeological evidence of the swastika in the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
can be dated to 3,000 BCE.
The investigators put forth the hypothesis that the swastika moved westward from the Indian subcontinent to
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
,
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
, the
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...
and other parts of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. In
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, neolithic or Bronze Age stone carvings of the symbol have been found on
Ilkley Moor
Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England. The moor, which rises to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level, is well known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem ...
, such as the
Swastika Stone.
Swastikas have also been found on pottery in archaeological digs in Africa, in the area of
Kush
Kush or Cush may refer to:
Bible
* Cush (Bible), two people and one or more places in the Hebrew Bible
Places
* Kush (mountain), a mountain near Kalat, Pakistan Balochistan
* Kush (satrapy), a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire
* Hindu Kush, a ...
and on pottery at the
Jebel Barkal
Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal ( ar, جبل بركل) is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 1 ...
temples, in
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
designs of the northern
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
(
Koban culture
The Koban culture (c. 1100 to 400 BC) is a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture of the northern and central Caucasus. It is preceded by the Colchian culture of the western Caucasus and the Kharachoi culture further east.
It is named after the ...
), and in
Neolithic China in the
Majiabang and
Majiayao
The Majiayao culture was a group of neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300 to 2000 BC. The Majiayao culture represent ...
cultures.
Other Iron Age attestations of the swastika can be associated with
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
cultures such as the
Illyrians
The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European languages, Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo ...
,
Indo-Iranians
Indo-Iranian peoples, also known as Indo-Iranic peoples by scholars, and sometimes as Arya or Aryans from their self-designation, were a group of Indo-European peoples who brought the Indo-Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European ...
,
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
s,
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
,
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
and
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
. In
Sintashta culture
The Sintashta culture (russian: Синташтинская культура, Sintashtinskaya kul'tura), around 2050–1900 BCE, is the first phase of the Sintashta–Petrovka culture. or Sintashta–Arkaim culture,. and is a late Middle Bronze Ag ...
's "
Country of Towns
In the archaeology of Russia, the Country of Towns (russian: Страна городов, ''strana gorodov'') is a tentative term for a territory in the southern Trans-Urals where a number of middle Bronze Age (~2,000 BC) fortified settlements of ...
", ancient
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
settlements in southern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, it has been found a great concentration of some of the oldest swastika patterns.
The swastika is also seen in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
during the Coptic period. Textile number T.231-1923 held at the V&A Museum in London includes small swastikas in its design. This piece was found at Qau-el-Kebir, near
Asyut
AsyutAlso spelled ''Assiout'' or ''Assiut'' ( ar, أسيوط ' , from ' ) is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate in Egypt. It was built close to the ancient city of the same name, which is situated nearby. The modern city is located at ...
, and is dated between 300 and 600 CE.
The ''Tierwirbel'' (the German for "animal whorl" or "whirl of animals") is a characteristic motif in Bronze Age Central Asia, the
Eurasian Steppe, and later also in Iron Age
Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
and
European
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
(
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
* Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
and
Germanic) culture, showing rotational symmetric arrangement of an
animal motif, often four birds' heads. Even wider diffusion of this "Asiatic" theme has been proposed, to the Pacific and even North America (especially
Moundville).
File:The petroglyph with swastikas, in Geghama mountains, Armenia.jpg, The petroglyph with swastikas, Gegham mountains
Gegham mountains (or Gegham Ridge, ISO 9985: Geġam), hy, Գեղամա լեռնաշղթա (''Geghama lernasheghta'') are a range of mountains in Armenia. The range is a tableland-type watershed basin of Sevan Lake from east, inflows of rivers ...
, Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
, circa 8,000 - 5,000 BCE
File:Samarra bowl.jpg, The Samarra
Samarra ( ar, سَامَرَّاء, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The city of Samarra was founded by Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutasim for his Turkish professional army ...
bowl, from Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, circa 4,000 BCE, held at the Pergamonmuseum
The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of German Emperor Wilhelm II according to plans by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann in Stripped Clas ...
, Berlin. The swastika in the centre of the design is a reconstruction.
File:IndusValleySeals swastikas.JPG, Swastika seals from Mohenjo-daro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';[Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...]
, of the Indus Valley civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...
, circa 2,100 - 1,750 BCE, preserved at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
File:Swastika iran.jpg, A swastika necklace excavated from Marlik, Gilan province, northern Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, circa 1,200 - 1,050 BCE
Historical use
In
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, the swastika symbol first appears in the archaeological record around
3000 BCE in the Indus Valley Civilisation.
It also appears in the
Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
and
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
cultures around the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
and the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
. In all these cultures, the swastika symbol does not appear to occupy any marked position or significance, appearing as just one form of a series of similar symbols of varying complexity. In the
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...
religion of
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, the swastika was a symbol of the revolving sun, infinity, or continuing creation. It is one of the most common symbols on
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
n coins.
The icon has been of spiritual significance to Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The swastika is a sacred symbol in the
Bön
''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan culture, Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initiall ...
religion, native to
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
.
South Asia
Hinduism
The swastika is an important Hindu symbol.
The swastika symbol is commonly used before entrances or on doorways of homes or temples, to mark the starting page of financial statements, and
mandala
A mandala ( sa, मण्डल, maṇḍala, circle, ) is a geometric configuration of symbols. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for e ...
s constructed for rituals such as weddings or welcoming a newborn.
The swastika has a particular association with
Diwali
Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is ...
, being drawn in ''
rangoli
Rangoli is an art form that originates from in the Indian subcontinent, in which patterns are created on the floor or a tabletop using materials such as powdered lime stone, red ochre, dry rice flour, coloured sand, quartz powder, flower petal ...
'' (coloured sand) or formed with
deepak
Deepak (दीपक) is a Hindi word meaning lamp, from the Sanskrit source word for light. The name Deepak symbolizes a bright future. In the twentieth century, it became very popular as a first name for male Hindus. Names like ''Deepa'' (male ...
lights on the floor outside Hindu houses and on wall hangings and other decorations.
In the diverse traditions within Hinduism, both the clockwise and counterclockwise swastika are found, with different meanings. The clockwise or right hand icon is called ''swastika'', while the counterclockwise or left hand icon is called ''sauwastika'' or ''sauvastika''.
The clockwise swastika is a solar symbol (
Surya
Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a m ...
), suggesting the motion of the Sun in India (the northern hemisphere), where it appears to enter from the east, then ascend to the south at midday, exiting to the west.
The counterclockwise ''sauwastika'' is less used; it connotes the night, and in tantric traditions it is an icon for the goddess
Kali
Kali (; sa, काली, ), also referred to as Mahakali, Bhadrakali, and Kalika ( sa, कालिका), is a Hinduism, Hindu goddess who is considered to be the goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in Shaktism. In t ...
, the terrifying form of
Devi Durga
Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars.
Durga's legend centres around c ...
.
The symbol also represents activity, karma, motion, wheel, and in some contexts the lotus.
According to Norman McClelland its symbolism for motion and the Sun may be from shared prehistoric cultural roots.
Jaipur 03-2016 38 Garh Ganesh Temple.jpg, A Hindu temple in Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
, India
हनुमान जयन्ति.png, A swastika inside a temple
A Hindu Swastika at Goa Lawah Temple Bali Indonesia.jpg, The Balinese Hindu pura Goa Lawah entrance
Bali 014 - Ubud - swastika.jpg, A Balinese Hindu shrine
Buddhism
![Buddhist Swastika with 24 Beads](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Buddhist_Swastika_with_24_Beads.svg)
In
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, the swastika is considered to symbolise the auspicious footprints of the Buddha.
The left-facing sauwastika is often imprinted on the chest, feet or palms of
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
images. It is an aniconic symbol for the Buddha in many parts of Asia and homologous with the
''dharma wheel''.
The shape symbolises eternal cycling, a theme found in the ''
samsara'' doctrine of Buddhism.
The swastika symbol is common in
esoteric tantric traditions of Buddhism, along with Hinduism, where it is found with
chakra
Chakras (, ; sa , text=चक्र , translit=cakra , translit-std=IAST , lit=wheel, circle; pi, cakka) are various focal points used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, collectively denominated as Tantra, or the esoteric or ...
theories and other meditative aids.
The clockwise symbol is more common, and contrasts with the counter clockwise version common in the Tibetan
Bon
''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...
tradition and locally called ''yungdrung''.
Jainism
![Jain_Prateek_Chihna](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Jain_Prateek_Chihna.svg)
In
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...
, it is a symbol of the seventh ''
tīrthaṅkara
In Jainism, a ''Tirthankara'' (Sanskrit: '; English: literally a 'ford-maker') is a saviour and spiritual teacher of the ''dharma'' (righteous path). The word ''tirthankara'' signifies the founder of a '' tirtha'', which is a fordable passag ...
'',
Suparśvanātha
Suparshvanatha ( sa, सुपार्श्वनाथ ), also known as Suparśva, was the seventh Jain '' Tīrthankara'' of the present age ('' avasarpini''). He was born to King Pratistha and Queen ''Prithvi'' at Varanasi on 12 Jestha Sh ...
.
In the
Śvētāmbara
The Śvētāmbara (; ''śvētapaṭa''; also spelled ''Shwethambara'', ''Svetambar'', ''Shvetambara'' or ''Swetambar'') is one of the two main branches of Jainism, the other being the ''Digambara''. Śvētāmbara means "white-clad", and refers ...
tradition, it is also one of the ''
aṣṭamaṅgala'' or eight auspicious symbols. All
Jain temple
A Jain temple, Derasar (Gujarati: દેરાસર) or Basadi (Kannada: ಬಸದಿ) is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Jain architecture is essentially restricted to temples and monasteries, and Jain buildings ge ...
s and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar. Jains use rice to make a swastika in front of statues and then put an offering on it, usually a ripe or dried fruit, a sweet ( hi, मिठाई ), or a coin or currency note. The four arms of the swastika symbolise the four places where a soul could be reborn in ''
samsara'', the cycle of birth and death''
svarga
Svarga (), also known as Indraloka and Svargaloka, is the celestial abode of the devas in Hinduism. Svarga is one of the seven higher lokas ( esoteric planes) in Hindu cosmology. Svarga is often translated as heaven, though it is regarded to b ...
'' "heaven", ''
naraka
Naraka ( sa, नरक) is the realm of hell in Indian religions. According to some schools of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism, ''Naraka'' is a place of torment. The word ''Neraka'' (modification of ''Naraka'') in Indonesian and Malaysia ...
'' "hell", ''manushya'' "humanity" or ''tiryancha'' "as flora or fauna"before the soul attains ''
moksha
''Moksha'' (; sa, मोक्ष, '), also called ''vimoksha'', ''vimukti'' and ''mukti'', is a term in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism for various forms of emancipation, enlightenment, liberation, and release. In its soteriology, ...
'' "salvation" as a ''
siddha
''Siddha'' (Sanskrit: '; "perfected one") is a term that is used widely in Indian religions and culture. It means "one who is accomplished." It refers to perfected masters who have achieved a high degree of physical as well as spiritual ...
'', having ended the cycle of birth and death and become
omniscient
Omniscience () is the capacity to know everything. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, this is an attribute of God. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism, there are diffe ...
.
East Asia
The swastika is an auspicious symbol in China where it was introduced from India with
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
.
In 693, during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
, it was declared as "the source of all good fortune" and was called by
Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...
becoming a Chinese word.
The Chinese character for () is similar to the swastika in shape and can be appeared into two different variations:《》and 《》. As the Chinese character ( and/or ) is homonym for the Chinese word of "ten thousand" () and "infinity", as such the Chinese character is itself a symbol of immortality
and infinity.
It was also a representation of
longevity
The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...
.
The Chinese character could be used as a stand-alone《》or《》or as be used as pairs《 》in Chinese visual arts, decorative arts, and clothing due to its auspicious connotation.
Adding the character ( and/or ) to other auspicious Chinese symbols or patterns can multiply that wish by 10,000 times.
It can be combined with other Chinese characters, such as the Chinese character 《》for longevity where it is sometimes even integrated into the Chinese character to augment the menaning of longevity.
The paired swastika symbols ( and ) are included, at least since the
Liao Dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...
(907–1125 CE), as part of the
Chinese writing system
Written Chinese () comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language. Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly logosyllabic; that is, a character generally rep ...
and are
variant characters for 《萬》 or 《万》 (''wàn'' in Mandarin, 《만》(''man'') in Korean, Cantonese, and Japanese, ''vạn'' in Vietnamese) meaning "
myriad".
The character can also be stylized in the form of the , Chinese auspicious clouds.
File:Shou Swastika.svg, Chinese character integrated into one of the stylistic versions of the Chinese character
File:Robe, dragon, man's (AM 9838-33).jpg, Paired character wan on a dragon robe
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
, Qing dynasty
Japan
![Japanese_Crest_Maru_ni_Hidari_Mannji](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Japanese_Crest_Maru_ni_Hidari_Mannji.svg)
When the Chinese writing system was introduced to Japan in the 8th century, the swastika was adopted into the Japanese language and culture. It is commonly referred as the ''manji'' (lit. "10,000-character"). Since the Middle Ages, it has been used as a ''
mon'' by various Japanese families such as
Tsugaru clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northwestern half of what is now Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The Tsugaru were ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain and its semi-subsidiary, ...
,
Hachisuka clan
The are descendants of Emperor Seiwa (850-880) of Japan and are a branch of the Ashikaga clan through the Shiba clan (Seiwa Genji).
History
Ashikaga Ieuji (13th century), son of Ashikaga Yasuuji, was the first to adopt the name Shiba. The Shiba ...
or around 60 clans that belong to
Tokugawa clan
The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...
. On
Japanese maps
The earliest known term used for maps in Japan is believed to be ''kata'' (, roughly "form"), which was probably in use until roughly the 8th century. During the Nara period, the term ''zu'' () came into use, but the term most widely used and asso ...
, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing swastika is often referred to as the or , and can also be called .
In
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...
, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called ''sayagata'' in Japanese, comprises left- and right-facing swastikas joined by lines. As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the ''key fret'' motif in English.
Caucasus
![Arevakhach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Arevakhach.svg)
In
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
the swastika is called the "
arevakhach
The Armenian eternity sign ( hy, Յաւերժութեան Նշան, haverzhut’yan nshan) or Arevakhach (, "Sun Cross") is an ancient Armenian national symbol and a symbol of the national identity of the Armenian people. It is one of the most co ...
" and "kerkhach" ( hy, կեռխաչ)
and is the ancient symbol of eternity and eternal light (i.e. God). Swastikas in
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
were found on petroglyphs from the copper age, predating the Bronze Age. During the Bronze Age it was depicted on
cauldron
A cauldron (or caldron) is a large pot ( kettle) for cooking or boiling over an open fire, with a lid and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger and/or integral handles or feet. There is a rich history of cauldron lore in religion, mythology, and ...
s, belts,
medallion
A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...
s and other items. Among the oldest petroglyphs is the seventh letter of the Armenian alphabet: Է("E" which means "is" or "to be") depicted as a half-swastika.
Swastikas can also be seen on early Medieval churches and fortresses, including the principal tower in Armenia's historical capital city of
Ani
Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia.
Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...
.
The same symbol can be found on
Armenian carpet
The term Armenian carpet designates, but is not limited to, tufted rugs or knotted carpets woven in Armenia or by Armenians from pre-Christian times to the present. It also includes a number of flat woven textiles. The term covers a large variet ...
s, cross-stones (''
khachkar'') and in medieval manuscripts, as well as on modern monuments as a
symbol of eternity.
Old
petroglyph
A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s of four-beam and other swastikas were recorded in
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...
, in particular, among the
Avars.
According to
Vakhushti of Kartli
Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, ''Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''Ge ...
, the tribal banner of the
Avar khans depicted a wolf with a standard with a double-spiral swastika.
Petroglyphs with swastikas were depicted on medieval
Vainakh tower architecture (see sketches by scholar Bruno Plaetschke from the 1920s).
Thus, a rectangular swastika was made in engraved form on the entrance of a residential tower in the settlement
Khimoy
Khimoy (russian: Химой, ce, ХӀима, ''Hima'') is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Sharoysky Municipal District, the Chechen Republic, Russia. (The selo of Sharoy
Sharoy (russian: Шарой, ce, Ш ...
,
Chechnya
Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...
.
File:Swastika of Avars Daghestan.JPG, Avar old petroglyph
File:Swastika avarian Dagh.JPG, Avar folk swastika
File:Armenian Khachkar with Swastikas Sanahin Armenia 1.jpg, Khachkar with swastikas and hexafoil
The hexafoil is a design with six-fold dihedral symmetry composed from six ''vesica piscis'' lenses arranged radially around a central point, often shown enclosed in a circumference of another six lenses. It is also sometimes known as a "daisy wh ...
s in Sanahin
Sanahin () is a village in the northern province of Lori in Armenia, now considered part of the city of Alaverdi (a cable car connects it with Alaverdi). The village is notable for its Sanahin Monastery complex, founded in the 10th century an ...
, Armenia
File:Символы_свастики_на_арке_средневековой_башни_в_Чечне.jpg, Swastika on the medieval tower arche in Khimoy
Khimoy (russian: Химой, ce, ХӀима, ''Hima'') is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Sharoysky Municipal District, the Chechen Republic, Russia. (The selo of Sharoy
Sharoy (russian: Шарой, ce, Ш ...
, Chechnya
Northern Europe
Germanic Iron Age
The swastika shape (also called a ''fylfot'') appears on various Germanic
Migration Period
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
and
Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...
artifacts, such as the 3rd-century
Værløse Fibula from Zealand, Denmark, the
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
spearhead from
Brest-Litovsk, today in
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
, the 9th-century
Snoldelev Stone
The Snoldelev Stone, listed as DR 248 in the Rundata catalog, is a 9th-century runestone that was originally located at Snoldelev, Ramsø, Denmark.
Description
The Snoldelev Stone, which is 1.25 meters in height, is decorated with painted scrat ...
from
Ramsø Ramsø was a municipality (Danish '' kommune'') in the former Roskilde County on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in east Denmark until January 1, 2007. The municipality covered an area of and had a total population in 2005 of 9,320. Its last ...
, Denmark, and numerous Migration Period
bracteate
A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vende ...
s drawn left-facing or right-facing.
The
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
ship burial
A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as the tomb for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself. If the ship is very small, it is called a boat grave. This style of burial was p ...
at
Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
, England, contained numerous items bearing the swastika, now housed in the collection of the
Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
The swastika is clearly marked on a hilt and sword belt found at
Bifrons
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; la, Ianvs ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janu ...
in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, in a grave of about the 6th century.
Hilda Ellis Davidson
Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson (born Hilda Roderick Ellis; 1 October 1914 – 12 January 2006) was an English folklorist. She was a scholar at the University of Cambridge and The Folklore Society, and specialized in the study of Celtic and G ...
theorised that the swastika symbol was associated with
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...
, possibly representing his
Mjolnirsymbolic of thunderand possibly being connected to the Bronze Age sun cross.
Davidson cites "many examples" of the swastika symbol from Anglo-Saxon graves of the pagan period, with particular prominence on cremation urns from the cemeteries of East Anglia.
Some of the swastikas on the items, on display at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, are depicted with such care and art that, according to Davidson, it must have possessed special significance as a
funerary symbol.
The
runic inscription
A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of El ...
on the 8th-century
Sæbø sword
The Sæbø sword (also known as the Thurmuth sword) is an early 9th-century Viking sword, found in a barrow at Sæbø, Vikøyri, in Norway's Sogn region in 1825. It is now held at the Bergen Museum in Bergen, Norway.
The sword has an inscription ...
has been taken as evidence of the swastika as a symbol of Thor in
Norse paganism
Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is the most common name for a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic peop ...
.
Celts
The bronze frontispiece of a ritual pre-Christian () shield found in the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
near
Battersea Bridge
Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast-iron girders and granite piers crossing the River Thames in London, England. It is situated on a sharp bend in the river, and links Battersea south of the river with Chelsea to the north. Th ...
(hence "
Battersea Shield
The Battersea Shield is one of the most significant pieces of ancient Celtic art found in Britain. It is a sheet bronze covering of a (now vanished) wooden shield decorated in La Tène style. The shield is on display in the British Museum, an ...
") is embossed with 27 swastikas in bronze and red enamel. An
Ogham
Ogham ( Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langu ...
stone found in Anglish,
Co Kerry,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
(
CIIC
Roughly 400 known ogham inscriptions are on stone monuments scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. Their language is predominantly Primitive Irish, but a few examples record fragments of the ...
141) was modified into an early Christian gravestone, and was decorated with a
cross pattée
A cross pattée, cross patty or cross paty, also known as a cross formy or cross formée (french: croix pattée, german: Tatzenkreuz), is a type of Christian cross with arms that are narrow at the centre, and often flared in a curve or straight ...
and two swastikas. The
Book of Kells () contains swastika-shaped ornamentation. At the Northern edge of
Ilkley Moor
Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England. The moor, which rises to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level, is well known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem ...
in
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
, there is a swastika-shaped pattern engraved in a stone known as the
Swastika Stone. A number of swastikas have been found embossed in
Galician metal pieces and carved in stones, mostly from the
Castro culture
Castro culture ( gl, cultura castrexa, pt, cultura castreja, ast, cultura castriega, es, cultura castreña, meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Pe ...
period, although there also are contemporary examples (imitating old patterns for decorative purposes).
Balto-Slavic
The swastika is an ancient
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
* Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...
thunder cross symbol (''pērkona krusts;'' also fire cross, ''
ugunskrusts
Ugunskrusts ( Latvian for 'Fire Cross'; other names — ''Cross of Fire'', '' Pērkonkrusts (Cross of Thunder (Thunder Cross))'', ''Cross of Perun (Cross of Perkūnas)'', ''Cross of Branches'', ''Cross of Laima'') is the swastika as a symbol ...
''), used to decorate objects, traditional clothing and in
archaeological excavations.
According to painter Stanisław Jakubowski, the "little sun" (Polish: ''słoneczko'') is an
Early Slavic
The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the Slav ...
pagan symbol of the Sun; he claimed it was engraved on wooden monuments built near the final resting places of fallen Slavs to represent eternal life. The symbol was first seen in his collection of Early Slavic symbols and architectural features, which he named ''Prasłowiańskie motywy architektoniczne'' (Polish: ''Early Slavic Architectural Motifs''). His work was published in 1923.
The
Boreyko coat of arms
Boreyko is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
History
The symbol of a swastika was also popular with the nobility. Prior to Christianity, this sign was painted on ...
with red swastika was used by several noble families in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
.
The
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
, according to
Boris Kuftin Boris Alekseevich Kuftin (2 February 1892 in Samara, Russia - 2 August 1953 in Lielupe (now a part of Jūrmala)) was a Soviet archaeologist and ethnographer. From 1933 to 1953, he worked in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. In the 1930s, he discovered the Tri ...
, unlike of some other Slavic peoples, the swastika was often used as a decorative element and was the basis of the ornament on traditional weaving products.
Many samples are described on the instance of a women's folk costume at the
Meshchera Lowlands
Meshchera Lowlands (Meshchyora Lowlands) (), also referred to as simply Meshchera/Meshchyora, is a spacious lowland in the middle of the European Russia. It is named after the Finnic Meshchera people, which used to live there (later mixing ...
.
In modern Russia, the name ''kolovrat'' (russian: коловрат, literally "
spinning wheel
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning f ...
"), is popularly associated with the swastika, but there are no ethnographic sources confirming this. According to some authors, Russian names popularly associated with the swastika include ''veterok'' ("breeze"),
''ognevtsi'' ("little flames"), "geese", "hares" (a towel with a swastika was called a towel with "hares"), or "little horses".
At the same time, similar word "''koleso''" ("wheel") for the name of rosette-shaped amulets, such as a
hexafoil
The hexafoil is a design with six-fold dihedral symmetry composed from six ''vesica piscis'' lenses arranged radially around a central point, often shown enclosed in a circumference of another six lenses. It is also sometimes known as a "daisy wh ...
-"thunder wheel" (e.g.
![Thunder mark (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Thunder_mark_%281%29.svg)
), are presents in authentic folklore, in particular, of the
Russian North
Russian North (russian: Русский Север) is an ethnocultural region situated in the northwestern part of Russia. It spans the regions of Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Vologda Oblast and Nenets Autonomous ...
.
File:Laimas krusts Lielvardes josta.jpg, Swastika on the Lielvārde Belt, Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
File:Kolovrat (Коловрат) Swastika (Свастика) - Rodnovery.svg, pl, Słoneczko ("little sun"); ''kolovrat'' ("spinning wheel
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning f ...
")
File:POL COA Boreyko.svg, Boreyko coat of arms
Boreyko is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
History
The symbol of a swastika was also popular with the nobility. Prior to Christianity, this sign was painted on ...
Sami
An object very much like a hammer or a double axe is depicted among the magical symbols on the drums of
Sami
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...
''
noaidi
A noaidi ( sme, noaidi, smj, noajdde, sma, nåejttie, sms, nōjjd, sjt, niojte, sjd, noojd/nuojd, italic=yes, sje, nåjjde) is a shaman of the Sami people in the Nordic countries, playing a role in Sámi religious practices. Most ''noaidi'' ...
'', used in their religious ceremonies before Christianity was established. The name of the Sami thunder god was
Horagalles
In Sami shamanism, Horagalles, also written Hora Galles and Thora Galles and often equated with Tiermes or ''Aijeke'' (i.e. "grandfather or great grandfather"), is the thunder god. He is depicted as a wooden figure with a nail in the head and wit ...
, thought to derive from "Old Man Thor" (''Þórr karl''). Sometimes on the drums, a male figure with a hammer-like object in either hand is shown, and sometimes it is more like a cross with crooked ends, or a swastika.
Southern Europe
Greco-Roman antiquity
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
architectural, clothing and coin designs are replete with single or interlinking swastika motifs. There are also gold plate
fibulae
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...
from the 8th century BCE decorated with an engraved swastika. Related symbols in classical Western architecture include the cross, the three-legged triskele or
triskelion
A triskelion or triskeles is an ancient motif consisting of a triple spiral exhibiting rotational symmetry.
The spiral design can be based on interlocking Archimedean spirals, or represent three bent human legs. It is found in artefacts o ...
and the rounded
lauburu
The lauburu ( Basque: ''lau'' ("four") + ''buru'' ("head")) is an ancient hooked cross with four comma-shaped heads and the most widely known traditional symbol of the Basque Country and the Basque people. In the past, it has also been associa ...
. The swastika symbol is also known in these contexts by a number of names, especially ''gammadion'', or rather the tetra-gammadion. The name ''gammadion'' comes from its being seen as being made up of four Greek
gamma
Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...
(Γ) letters. Ancient Greek architectural designs are replete with the interlinking symbol.
In
Greco-Roman art and architecture, and in
Romanesque and
Gothic art
Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern, Southern and ...
in the West, isolated swastikas are relatively rare, and the swastika is more commonly found as a repeated element in a border or tessellation. The swastika often represented perpetual motion, reflecting the design of a rotating windmill or watermill. A meander of connected swastikas makes up the large band that surrounds the
Augustan Ara Pacis
The Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin, "Altar of Augustan Peace"; commonly shortened to Ara Pacis) is an altar in Rome dedicated to Pax, the Roman goddess of Peace. The monument was commissioned by the Roman Senate on July 4, 13 BC to honour the return of ...
.
A design of interlocking swastikas is one of several
tessellation
A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane (mathematics), plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to high-dimensional ...
s on the floor of the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
of
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
, France. A border of linked swastikas was a common Roman architectural motif, and can be seen in more recent buildings as a neoclassical element. A swastika border is one form of
meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
, and the individual swastikas in such a border are sometimes called
''Greek keys''. There have also been swastikas found on the floors of
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
.
File:Tetraskele.svg, Greek tetraskelion (lauburu
The lauburu ( Basque: ''lau'' ("four") + ''buru'' ("head")) is an ancient hooked cross with four comma-shaped heads and the most widely known traditional symbol of the Basque Country and the Basque people. In the past, it has also been associa ...
)
Greek Silver Stater of Corinth.jpg, Swastika on a Greek silver stater
The stater (; grc, , , statḗr, weight) was an ancient coin used in various regions of Ancient Greece, Greece. The term is also used for similar coins, imitating Greek staters, minted elsewhere in ancient Europe.
History
The stater, as a Gr ...
coin from Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part o ...
, 6th century BCE
File:Ancient Roman Mosaics Villa Romana La Olmeda 007 Pedrosa De La Vega - Saldaña (Palencia).JPG, Roman mosaic of La Olmeda
The palatial Late Antique Roman villa at La Olmeda is situated in Pedrosa de la Vega in the province of Palencia (Castile and León, Spain), near the banks of the Carrión. Long known as the provenance of chance finds, it was finally professio ...
, Spain
Illyrians
The swastika was widespread among the
Illyrians
The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European languages, Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo ...
, symbolising the Sun. The Sun cult was the main Illyrian cult; the Sun was represented by a swastika in clockwise motion, and it stood for the movement of the Sun.
Medieval and early modern Europe
Swastika shapes have been found on numerous artefacts from
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
Europe.
In Christianity, the swastika is used as a hooked version of the
Christian Cross, the symbol of Christ's victory over death. Some Christian churches built in the
Romanesque and
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
eras are decorated with swastikas, carrying over earlier Roman designs. Swastikas are prominently displayed in a
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
in the St. Sophia church of
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, Ukraine dating from the 12th century. They also appear as a repeating ornamental motif on a tomb in the Basilica of St. Ambrose in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
.
A ceiling painted in 1910 in the church of St Laurent in
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
has many swastikas. It can be visited today because the church became the archaeological museum of the city. A proposed direct link between it and a swastika floor mosaic in the
Cathedral of Our Lady of Amiens
, image = 0 Amiens - Cathédrale Notre-Dame (1).JPG
, imagesize = 200px
, img capt = Amiens Cathedral
, pushpin map = France
, pushpin label position = below
, coordinates =
, country ...
, which was built on top of a pagan site at
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
, France in the 13th century, is considered unlikely. The
stole worn by a priest in the 1445
painting of the Seven Sacraments by
Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden () or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 140018 June 1464) was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits. He was highly ...
presents the swastika form simply as one way of depicting the cross.
Swastikas also appear in art and architecture during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
and
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
era. The fresco ''The School of Athens'' shows an ornament made out of swastikas, and the symbol can also be found on the facade of the ''Santa Maria della Salute'', a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
.
In the Polish First Republic the symbol of the swastika was also popular with the nobility. According to chronicles, the
Rus' prince
Oleg
Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "bless ...
, who in the 9th century
attacked Constantinople, nailed his shield (which had a large red swastika painted on it) to the city's gates.
Several noble houses, e.g. Boreyko, Borzym, and Radziechowski from Ruthenia, also had swastikas as their
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
. The family reached its greatness in the 14th and 15th centuries and its crest can be seen in many heraldry books produced at that time.
The swastika was also a heraldic symbol, for example on the
Boreyko coat of arms
Boreyko is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
History
The symbol of a swastika was also popular with the nobility. Prior to Christianity, this sign was painted on ...
, used by noblemen in Poland and Ukraine. In the 19th century the swastika was one of the Russian Empire's symbols, and was used on coinage as a backdrop to the
Russian eagle.
File:Bashkort symbol of Sun.svg, Bashkirs
, native_name_lang = bak
, flag = File:Bashkirs of Baymak rayon.jpg
, flag_caption = Bashkirs of Baymak in traditional dress
, image =
, caption =
, population = approx. 2 million
, popplace ...
symbol of the sun and fertility
File:ShaveyZion1.jpg, Mosaic swastika in an excavated Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
church in Shavei Tzion
Shavei Tzion ( he, שָׁבֵי צִיּוֹן, ''lit.'' Returnees to Zion) is a moshav shitufi in northern Israel. Located between Acre and Nahariya and covering 2,000 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Asher Regional Council. In ...
, (Israel)
File:Jewish swastika.jpg, A swastika composed of Hebrew letters as a mystical symbol from the Jewish Kabbalistic work "Parashat Eliezer", from the 18th century or earlier
File:Winchestercathedralheadonwilliamedingtontomb crop.jpg, Swastikas on the vestments of the effigy of Bishop William Edington
William Edington (died 6 or 7 October 1366) was an English bishop and administrator. He served as Bishop of Winchester from 1346 until his death, Keeper of the wardrobe from 1341 to 1344, treasurer from 1344 to 1356, and finally as chancellor fr ...
(d. 1366) in Winchester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...
File:Swastika Stone, Ilkley (reproduction) - geograph.org.uk - 48282.jpg, The Victorian-era reproduction of the Swastika Stone on Ilkley Moor
Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England. The moor, which rises to 402 m (1,319 ft) above sea level, is well known as the inspiration for the Yorkshire "county anthem ...
, which sits near the original to aid visitors in interpreting the carving
Non-Eurasian samples
Africa
Swastikas can be seen in various African cultures. In
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
the Swastika is carved in the window of the famous 12th-century
Biete Maryam
Biete Maryam is one of the monolithic rock-cut Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Lalibela.
Like the other churches of Lalibela, its precise date of constructio ...
, one of the
Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela
The eleven Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela are monolithic churches located in the Western Ethiopian Highlands near the town of Lalibela, named after the late-12th and early-13th century King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty, who commissi ...
.
In Ghana, the swastika is among the
adinkra symbols
''Adinkra'' are symbols from Ghana that represent concepts or aphorisms. ''Adinkra'' are used extensively in fabrics, logos and pottery. They are incorporated into walls and other architectural features. ''Adinkra'' symbols appear on some tradit ...
of the
Akan people
The Akan () people live primarily in present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast in West Africa. The Akan language (also known as ''Twi/Fante'') are a group of dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo ...
s. Called ''nkontim'', swastikas could be found on
Ashanti gold weights and clothing.
File:Brooklyn Museum 74.218.25 Weight.jpg, Ashanti weight in Africa
File:Ghana-nkontim.svg, ''Nkontim'' adinkra symbol from Ghana, representing loyalty and readiness to serve
File:Skastika symbol in the window of Lalibela Rock hewn churches.jpg, Carved fretwork forming a swastika on the Biete Maryam
Biete Maryam is one of the monolithic rock-cut Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Lalibela.
Like the other churches of Lalibela, its precise date of constructio ...
in Ethiopia
Americas
The swastika is a Navajo symbol for good luck, also translated to "whirling log". Though it was also used by some Native American groups, many object to its use today.
[Olson, Jim. "The Swastika symbol in Native American Art." ''Whispering Wind'' 48, no. 3 (2020): 23-25.] The symbol was used on state road signs in Arizona.
File:Pima Swastika.svg, Pima
Pima or PIMA may refer to:
People
* Pima people, the Akimel O'odham, Indigenous peoples in Arizona (U.S.) and Sonora (Mexico)
Places
* Pima, Arizona, a town in Graham County
* Pima County, Arizona
* Pima Canyon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains ...
symbol of the four winds
Early 20th century
In the Western world, the symbol experienced a resurgence following the archaeological work in the late 19th century of
Heinrich Schliemann
Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeologi ...
, who discovered the symbol in the site of ancient
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
and associated it with the ancient migrations of
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric population of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction.
Knowledge of them comes chiefly from t ...
, whose proto-language was not coincidentally termed "Proto-Indo-Germanic" by German language historians. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorised that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors", linking it to ancient
Teutons
The Teutons ( la, Teutones, , grc, Τεύτονες) were an ancient northern European tribe mentioned by Roman authors. The Teutons are best known for their participation, together with the Cimbri and other groups, in the Cimbrian War with th ...
, Greeks of the time of
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
and Indians of the
Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
era. By the early 20th century, it was used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck and success.
Schliemann's work soon became intertwined with the political ''
völkisch'' movements, which used the swastika as a symbol for the "
Aryan race
The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...
"a concept that theorists such as
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
equated with a
Nordic master race
The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative " Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as "''Herrenmenschen''" ("master humans").
T ...
originating in northern Europe. Since its adoption by the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, the swastika has been associated with Nazism, fascism, racism in its
white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
form, the
Axis powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
in World War II, and
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
in much of the West. The swastika remains a core symbol of neo-Nazi groups.
The Benedictine choir school at
Lambach Abbey
Lambach Abbey (german: Stift Lambach) is a Benedictine monastery in Lambach in the Wels-Land district of Upper Austria, Austria.
History
A monastery was founded in Lambach in about 1040 by Count Arnold II of Lambach-Wels. His son, Bishop Adalbero ...
, Upper Austria, which Hitler attended for several months as a boy, had a swastika chiseled into the monastery portal and also the wall above the spring grotto in the courtyard by 1868. Their origin was the personal
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of Abbot
Theoderich Hagn of the monastery in Lambach, which bore a golden swastika with slanted points on a blue field.
Europe
Britain
The British author and poet
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
used the symbol on the cover art of a number of his works, including ''
The Five Nations
''The Five Nations'', a collection of poems by English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), was first published in late 1903, both in the United Kingdom and the U.S.A.
Some of the poems were new; some had been published before (not ...
'', 1903, which has it twinned with an elephant. Once Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power, Kipling ordered that the swastika should no longer adorn his books. In 1927, a red swastika
defaced by a Union Jack was proposed as a flag for the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
.
Denmark
![Elefantporten Ny Carlsberg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Elefantporten_Ny_Carlsberg.jpg)
The Danish brewery company
Carlsberg Group
Carlsberg A/S (; ) is a Danish multinational brewer. Founded in 1847 by J. C. Jacobsen, the company's headquarters is in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since Jacobsen's death in 1887, the majority owner of the company has been the Carlsberg Foundation. T ...
used the swastika as a logo from the 19th century until the middle of the 1930s when it was discontinued because of association with the Nazi Party in neighbouring Germany. In
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
at the entrance gate, and tower, of the company's headquarters, built in 1901, swastikas can still be seen. The tower is supported by four stone elephants, each with a swastika on each side. The tower they support is topped with a spire, in the middle of which is a swastika.
Iceland
The swastika, or the Thor's hammer as the logo was called, was used as the logo for
H/f. Eimskipafjelag Íslands from its founding in 1914 until the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
when it was discontinued and changed to read only the letters Eimskip.
Ireland
The
Swastika Laundry was a laundry founded in 1912, located on Shelbourne Road,
Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge () (from historic Ball's Bridge) is an affluent neighbourhood of the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The area is largely north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the city. Th ...
, a district of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland. In the 1950s,
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972).
...
came across a van belonging to the company while he was staying in Ireland, leading to some awkward moments before he realised the company was older than Nazism and totally unrelated to it. The chimney of the boiler-house of the laundry still stands, but the laundry has been redeveloped.
Finland
In Finland, the swastika ( meaning "crooked-head", and later , meaning "hook-cross") was often used in traditional folk-art products, as a decoration or magical symbol on textiles and wood. The swastika was also used by the
Finnish Air Force
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, equipment = 159
, equipment_label ...
until 1945, and is still used on air force flags.
The , an elaboration on the swastika, is used by
scouts
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
in some instances, and by a student organisation. The Finnish village of Tursa uses the as a kind of a certificate of authenticity on products made there, and is the origin of this name of the symbol (meaning "heart of Tursa"), which is also known as the ("walrus-heart"). Traditional textiles are still made in Finland with swastikas as parts of traditional ornaments.
=Finnish military
=
The
Finnish Air Force
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, equipment = 159
, equipment_label ...
used the swastika as an emblem, introduced in 1918, until January 2017. The type of swastika adopted by the air-force was the symbol of luck for the Swedish count
Eric von Rosen
Count Carl Gustaf Bloomfield Eric von Rosen (2 June 1879 in Stockholm – 25 April 1948 Skeppsholmen, Stockholm) was a Swedish honorary doctor, patron, explorer, ethnographer, prominent figure in the Swedish upper class and a leading figure in S ...
, who donated one of its earliest aircraft; he later became a prominent figure in the Swedish Nazi movement.
The swastika was also used by the women's paramilitary organisation
Lotta Svärd
Lotta Svärd () was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women. Formed originally in 1918, it had a large membership undertaking volunteer social work in the 1920s and 1930s. It was formed to support the White Guard. Du ...
, which was banned in 1944 in accordance with the
Moscow Armistice
The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of mo ...
between Finland and the
allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
.
The
President of Finland
The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...
is the grand master of the
Order of the White Rose
The Order of the White Rose of Finland ( fi, Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Vita Ros’ orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. T ...
. According to the protocol, the president shall wear the Grand Cross of the White Rose with collar on formal occasions. The original design of the collar, decorated with nine swastikas, dates from 1918 and was designed by the artist
Akseli Gallen-Kallela. The Grand Cross with the swastika collar has been awarded 41 times to foreign heads of state. To avoid misunderstandings, the swastika decorations were replaced by fir crosses at the decision of president
Urho Kekkonen
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...
in 1963 after it became known that the
President of France
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...
Charles De Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
was uncomfortable with the swastika collar.
Also a design by Gallen-Kallela from 1918, the
Cross of Liberty has a swastika pattern in its arms. The Cross of Liberty is depicted in the upper left corner of the standard of the President of Finland.
In December 2007, a silver replica of the World War II-period Finnish air defence's relief ring decorated with a swastika became available as a part of a charity campaign.
The original war-time idea was that the public swap their precious metal rings for the state air defence's relief ring, made of iron.
In 2017, the old logo of Finnish Air Force Command with swastika was replaced by a new logo showing golden eagle and a circle of wings. However, the logo of Finland's air force academy still keeps the swastika symbol.
Latvia
![Roundel of Latvia (1926-1940)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Roundel_of_Latvia_%281926-1940%29.svg)
Latvia adopted the swastika, for its
Air Force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...
in 1918/1919 and continued its use until the
Soviet occupation
During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...
in 1940. The cross itself was maroon on a white background, mirroring the colors of the Latvian flag. Earlier versions pointed counter-clockwise, while later versions pointed clock-wise and eliminated the white background. Various other
Latvian Army
The Latvian Land Forces ( lv, Sauszemes spēki, SzS) together with the Latvian National Guard form the land warfare branch of the Latvian National Armed Forces. Since 2007, land forces are organized as a fully professional standing army.
Mission ...
units and the Latvian War College (the predecessor of the
National Defence Academy
The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services i.e. the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force train together before they go on ...
) also had adopted the symbol in their battle flags and insignia during the
Latvian War of Independence
The Latvian War of Independence ( lv, Latvijas Neatkarības karš), sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles () or the Latvian War of Liberation (), was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaim ...
. A stylised fire cross is the base of the
Order of Lāčplēsis
The Order of Lāčplēsis (also Lāčplēsis Military Order, lv, Lāčplēša Kara ordenis), the first and the highest Latvian military award, was established in 1919 on the initiative of Jānis Balodis, the Commander of the Latvian Army during ...
, the highest military decoration of Latvia for participants of the War of Independence. The
Pērkonkrusts
Pērkonkrusts (, "Thunder Cross") was a Latvian ultranationalist, Anti-German sentiment, anti-German, anti-Slavic, and antisemitic political party founded in 1933 by Gustavs Celmiņš, borrowing elements of German nationalism—but being unsymp ...
, an ultra-nationalist political organisation active in the 1930s, also used the fire cross as one of its symbols.
Lithuania
The swastika symbol (
Lithuanian: ''sūkurėlis'') is a traditional Baltic ornament,
found on relics dating from at least the 13th century. The swastika for Lithuanians represent the history and memory of their Lithuanians ancestors as well as the
Baltic people
The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages.
One of the features of Baltic languages is the number o ...
at large.
There are monuments in Lithuania such as the Freedom Monument in
Rokiškis
Rokiškis () is a city in northeastern Lithuania with a population of about 14,400.
History
The legend of the founding of Rokiškis tells about a hunter called Rokas who had been hunting for hares ( Lit. "kiškis"). However, cities ending in "- ...
where the swastika can be found.
Sweden
![ASEA logo pre 1933](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/ASEA_logo_pre_1933.svg)
The Swedish company
ASEA
''Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget'' (English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company; Swedish abbreviation: ASEA) was a Swedish industrial company.
History
ASEA was founded in 1883 by Ludvig Fredholm in Västerås a ...
, now a part of
ABB
ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...
, in the late 1800s introduced a company
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
featuring a swastika. The logo was replaced in 1933, when
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
came to power in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. During the early 1900s, the swastika was used as a symbol of electric power, perhaps because it resembled a
waterwheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...
or
turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...
. On maps of the period, the sites of hydroelectric
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
s were marked with swastikas.
Norway
Starting in 1917,
Mikal Sylten
Mikal Peder Olaus Sylten (27 July 1873 – 27 November 1964) was a Norwegian writer.
Originally a typographer, from 1916 he published a periodical, '' Nationalt Tidsskrift''. It was staunchly antisemitic and anti-Zionist, and Sylten took up the ...
's staunchly
anti-semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
periodical, ''
Nationalt Tidsskrift'' took up the swastika as a symbol, three years before
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
chose to do so.
The headquarters of the
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
Municipal
Power Station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
was designed by architects ''Bjercke and Eliassen'' in 1928–1931. Swastikas adorn its wrought iron gates. The architects knew the swastika as a symbol of ''electricity'' and were probably not yet aware that it had been usurped by the German Nazi party and would soon become the foremost symbol of the German
Reich
''Reich'' (; ) is a German language, German noun whose meaning is analogous to the meaning of the English word "realm"; this is not to be confused with the German adjective "reich" which means "rich". The terms ' (literally the "realm of an emp ...
. The fact that these gates survived the cleanup after the
German occupation of Norway
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...
during
WW II is a testimony to the innocence and good faith of the power plant and its architects. The architects Bjercke and Eliassen knew the swastika as a symbol of power plants on maps in Scandinavia, and as the logo of Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget, ASEA.
Eurasia (Russia)
The left-handed swastika was a favorite sign of the last Russian Empress
Alexandra Feodorovna. She wore a talisman in the form of a swastika, put it everywhere for happiness, including on her suicide letters from
Tobolsk
Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and i ...
, later drew with a pencil on the wall and in the window opening of the room in the
Ipatiev House
Ipatiev House (russian: Дом Ипатьева) was a merchant's house in Yekaterinburg (later renamed Sverdlovsk in 1924, renamed back to Yekaterinburg in 1991) where the former Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (1868–1918, reigned 1894–1917), h ...
, which served as the place of the last imprisonment of the royal family and on the wallpaper above the bed.
The
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...
of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally rotated swastikas in their centres. The banknote design was initially intended for the Mongolian national bank but was re-purposed for
Russian ruble
''hum''; cv, тенкĕ ''tenke''; kv, шайт ''shayt''; Lak: къуруш ''k'urush''; Mari: теҥге ''tenge''; os, сом ''som''; tt-Cyrl, сум ''sum''; udm, манет ''manet''; sah, солкуобай ''solkuobay''
, name_ab ...
after the February revolution. Swastikas were depicted and on some Soviet credit cards (
sovznak
Sovznaks ( rus, совзнаки, p=sɐˈvznakʲɪ) were promissory notes issued in Soviet Russia in 1919 and used during 1919–1924. The name is an abbreviation of the expression "Sovetskiye znaki" (Советские знаки, Soviet tokens), ...
s) printed with clichés that were in circulation in 1918–1922.
During the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, the swastika was present in the symbolism of the uniform of some units of the
White Army
The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв ...
Asiatic Cavalry Division
The Asiatic Cavalry Division () was a White Army cavalry Division (military), division during the Russian Civil War. The division was composed of Russians, Buryats, Tatars, Bashkirs, Mongols of different tribes, Han Chinese, Chinese, Manchu people ...
of
Baron Ungern
Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg (russian: link=no, Роман Фёдорович фон Унгерн-Штернберг, translit=Roman Fedorovich fon Ungern-Shternberg; 10 January 1886 – 15 September 1921), often refer ...
in Siberia and
Bogd Khanate of Mongolia
The Bogd Khanate of Mongolia ( mn, , Богд хаант Монгол Улс; ) was the government of Outer Mongolia between 1911 and 1919 and again from 1921 to 1924. By the spring of 1911, some prominent Mongol nobles including Prince Tögs ...
, which is explained by the significant number of Buddhists within it. The
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
's ethnic
Kalmyk units wore distinct armbands featuring the swastika with "РСФСР" (Roman: "RSFSR") inscriptions on them.
File:Red-Army-Swastika-1919.jpg, Badges worn by the Kalmyk formations of the Red Army in 1919
File:Confederated Republic of Altai (1921-1922).svg, Flag of Karakorum-Altai Government in Siberia (1918–1922)
File:Flag of Tannu Tuva (1921-1926) alternate.svg, Flag of TuvaTuvan People's Republic
The Tuvan People's Republic (TPR; tyv, Тыва Арат Республик, translit=Tywa Arat Respublik; Yanalif: ''Tьʙа Arat Respuʙlik'', ),) and abbreviated TAR. known as the Tannu Tuva People's Republic until 1926, was a partially rec ...
(1921–1926)
North America
The swastika motif is found in some traditional
Native American art and iconography. Historically, the design has been found in excavations of
Mississippian-era sites in the
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
valleys, and on objects associated with the
Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). It is also widely used by a number of
southwestern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
tribes, most notably the
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
, and
plains nations such as the
Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, ...
. Among various tribes, the swastika carries different meanings. To the
Hopi it represents the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it is one symbol for the whirling log (''tsin náálwołí''), a sacred image representing a legend that is used in healing rituals. A brightly coloured
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the
Royal Saskatchewan Museum
The Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) is a Canadian natural history museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. Founded in 1906, it is the first museum in Saskatchewan, and the first provincial museum in the three Prairie Provinces. The institution was formed ...
in Canada.
The
Passamaquoddy Nation, whose
homeland
A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
within
Dawnland extends across the
Canada–United States border
The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...
between
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
, used an elongated swastika on their war canoes in the American colonial period as well as later. A carving of a canoe with a Passamaquody swastika was found in a ruin in the
Argonne Forest in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, having been carved there by Moses Neptune, an American soldier of Passamaquody heritage, who was one of the last American soldiers to die in battle in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Before the 1930s, the symbol for the
45th Infantry Division of the United States Army was a red diamond with a yellow swastika, a tribute to the large Native American population in the southwestern United States. It was later replaced with a
thunderbird
Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to:
* Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture
* Ford Thunderbird, a car
Birds
* Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...
symbol.
A swastika shape is a symbol in the culture of the
Guna people
The Guna, are an Indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. In the Guna language, they call themselves ''Dule'' or ''Tule'', meaning "people", and the name of the language is ''Dulegaya'', literally "people-mouth".
The term was in the language ...
of
Guna Yala
Guna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is a '' comarca indígena'' (indigenous province) in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Gunas. Its capital is Gaigirgordub. It is bounded on the north by the Car ...
, Panama. In Guna tradition it symbolises the octopus that created the world, its tentacles pointing to the four cardinal points.
In February 1925, the Guna revolted vigorously against Panamanian suppression of their culture, and in 1930 they assumed autonomy. The flag they adopted at that time is based on the swastika shape, and remains the official flag of Guna Yala. A number of variations on the flag have been used over the years: red top and bottom bands instead of orange were previously used, and in 1942 a ring (representing the traditional Guna nose-ring) was added to the center of the flag to distance it from the symbol of the Nazi party.
The town of
Swastika, Ontario, Canada, and the hamlet of
Swastika, New York were named after the symbol.
From 1909 to 1916, the
K-R-I-T automobile, manufactured in Detroit, Michigan, used a right-facing swastika as their trademark.
File:William Neptune, Passamaquoddy chief, 1920.jpg, Chief William Neptune of the Passamaquoddy
The Passamaquoddy ( Maliseet-Passamaquoddy: ''Peskotomuhkati'') are a Native American/First Nations people who live in northeastern North America. Their traditional homeland, Peskotomuhkatik'','' straddles the Canadian province of New Brunswick ...
, wearing a headdress and outfit adorned with swastikas
File:Native American basketball team crop.jpg, Chilocco Indian Agricultural School basketball team in 1909
File:The Girls Club of Ladies Home Journal 1912 pillow cover (cropped).jpg, Pillow cover offered by the Girls' Club in ''The Ladies Home Journal'' in 1912
Association with Nazism
Use in Nazism (19201945)
The swastika was widely used in Europe at the start of the 20th century. It symbolised many things to the Europeans, with the most common symbolism being of good luck and auspiciousness.
In the wake of
widespread popular usage, in
post-World War I Germany, the newly established
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
formally adopted the swastika in 1920. The Nazi Party emblem was a black swastika rotated 45 degrees on a white circle on a red background. This insignia was used on the party's flag, badge, and armband. Hitler also designed his personal standard using a black swastika sitting flat on one arm, not rotated.
Before the Nazis, the swastika was already in use as a symbol of German nationalist movements ().
José Manuel Erbez says:
However, Liebenfels was drawing on an already-established use of the symbol.
In his 1925 work , Adolf Hitler writes: "I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black hooked cross in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the hooked cross."
When Hitler created a flag for the Nazi Party, he sought to incorporate both the swastika and "those revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past and which once brought so much honor to the German nation". (Red, white, and black were the colours of the
flag of the old German Empire.) He also stated: "As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the hooked cross, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the
Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work."
The swastika was also understood as "the symbol of the creating, effecting life" () and as "race emblem of Germanism" ().
The concept of
racial hygiene
The term racial hygiene was used to describe an approach to eugenics in the early 20th century, which found its most extensive implementation in Nazi Germany (Nazi eugenics). It was marked by efforts to avoid miscegenation, analogous to an animal ...
was an ideology central to Nazism, though it is
scientific racism
Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism (racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or racial superiority.. "Few tragedies ...
. High-ranking Nazi theorist
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
noted that the
Indo-Aryan peoples
Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse collection of Indo-European peoples speaking Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent. Historically, Aryan were the Indo-European pastoralists who migrated from Central Asia into South Asia and intr ...
were both a model to be imitated and a warning of the dangers of the spiritual and racial "confusion" that, he believed, arose from the proximity of races. The Nazis co-opted the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan master race.
On 14 March 1933, shortly after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the NSDAP flag was hoisted alongside Germany's national colors. As part of the
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...
, the NSDAP flagwith the swastika slightly offset from centerwas adopted as the sole national flag of Germany on 15 September 1935.
File:Flag of the Order of New Templars.svg, Flag of the Order of the New Templars
The Order of the New Templars – ''Ordo Novi Templi'' was a proto-fascist secret society in Germany founded by Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (the code name of Fascist agitator Adolf Joseph Lanz) in 1900. Lanz used this order to spread his ide ...
designed 1907 with a swastika used as ''völkisch'' (German ethno-nationalist) symbol
File:Treu Deutsch Nr. 11 12 10. September 1918 Nachrichten des Deutschen Volksrates Einheit völkischer Verbände Herausgegeben von Dr. Heinrich Pudor. Hakenkreuz early swastika Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig (City Museum) 2015 adjusted.jpg, Heinrich Pudor
Heinrich Pudor (31 August 1865 in Loschwitz (near Dresden) – 22 December 1943 in Leipzig) was a German Völkisch-nationalist pundit and a pioneer of nudist culture in Germany. He took the pseudonyms Heinrich Scham and Ernst Deutsch.
Life
He wa ...
's ''völkisch'' ''Treu Deutsch'' ('True German') 1918 with a swastika. From the collections of Leipzig City Museum.
File:Pre-Nazi Swastika. Stahlhelm M 1916 mit Hakenkreuzbemalung. Marinebrigade Ehrhardt. Lüttwitz-Kapp-Putsch 1920. Deutsches Historisches Museum.jpg, German World War I helmet with swastika used by a member of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
The Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, also known as the Ehrhardt Brigade, was a Freikorps unit of the early Weimar Republic. It was formed on 17 February 1919 as the Second Marine Brigade from members of the former Imperial German Navy under the lead ...
, a right-wing paramilitary Free Corps, participating in the Kapp Putsch
The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...
1920
File:Broken crossed circle.svg, "Broken sun cross
A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle.
The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of ...
" or "circle swastika", official symbol of the Thule Society
The Thule Society (; german: Thule-Gesellschaft), originally the ''Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum'' ("Study Group for Germanic Antiquity"), was a German occultist and '' Völkisch'' group founded in Munich shortly after World War I, ...
, ''völkisch'' German Faith Movement
The German Faith Movement (''Deutsche Glaubensbewegung'') was a religious movement in Nazi Germany (1933–1945), closely associated with University of Tübingen professor Jakob Wilhelm Hauer. The movement sought to move Germany away from ...
, 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, SS-Schalburg Corps, and others
File:Emblem of the Imperial Fascist League.svg, Logo of the British Imperial Fascist League (1929–1939)
Use by the Allies
During World War II it was common to use small swastikas to mark air-to-air victories on the sides of Allied aircraft, and at least one British fighter pilot inscribed a swastika in his logbook for each German plane he shot down.
Post–World War II stigmatisation
Because of its use by Nazi Germany, the swastika since the 1930s has been largely associated with Nazism. In the aftermath of World War II it has been considered a symbol of hate in the West, and of white supremacy in many Western countries.
As a result, all use of it, or its use as a Nazi or hate symbol, is prohibited in some countries, including Germany. In some countries, such as the United States (in the 2003 case ''
Virginia v. Black
''Virginia v. Black'', 538 U.S. 343 (2003), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that any state statute banning cross burning on the basis that it constitutes ''prima facie'' evidence of ...
''), the highest courts have ruled that the local governments can prohibit the use of swastika along with other symbols such as cross burning, if the intent of the use is to intimidate others.
Germany
The German and Austrian postwar
criminal code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
makes the public showing of the swastika, the
sig rune
Sig used as a name may refer to:
* Sig (given name)
*Sig, Algeria, a city on the banks of the Sig River
* Sig Alert, an alert for traffic congestion in California, named after Loyd Sigmon
*Sig River, a river of Algeria also known as Mekerra
sig ( ...
, the
Celtic cross
The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...
(specifically
the variations used by white power activists), the , the
odal rune and the skull illegal, except for scholarly reasons. It is also censored from the reprints of 1930s railway timetables published by the . The swastikas on Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples are exempt, as religious symbols cannot be banned in Germany.
A controversy was stirred by the decision of several police departments to begin inquiries against anti-fascists. In late 2005 police raided the offices of the
punk rock label and mail order store "Nix Gut Records" and confiscated merchandise depicting crossed-out swastikas and fists smashing swastikas. In 2006 the police department started an inquiry against anti-fascist youths using a placard depicting a person dumping a swastika into a trashcan. The placard was displayed in opposition to the campaign of right-wing nationalist parties for local elections.
On Friday, 17 March 2006, a member of the ,
Claudia Roth reported herself to the German police for displaying a crossed-out swastika in multiple demonstrations against
Neo-Nazis
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...
, and subsequently got the Bundestag to suspend her immunity from prosecution. She intended to show the absurdity of charging anti-fascists with using fascist symbols: "We don't need prosecution of non-violent young people engaging against right-wing extremism." On 15 March 2007, the
Federal Court of Justice of Germany
The Federal Court of Justice (german: Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction (''ordentliche Gerichtsbarkeit'') in Germany, founded in 1950. It has its seat in Karlsruhe with two panels being situat ...
() held that the crossed-out symbols were "clearly directed against a revival of national-socialist endeavors", thereby settling the dispute for the future.
On 9 August 2018, Germany lifted the ban on the usage of swastikas and other Nazi symbols in video games. "Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating," USK managing director Elisabeth Secker told CTV. "This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and videogames."
Legislation in other European countries
* Until 2013 in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
, it was a criminal misdemeanour to publicly display "totalitarian symbols", including the swastika, the
SS insignia, and the
Arrow Cross, punishable by custodial arrest.
Display for academic, educational, artistic or journalistic reasons was allowed at the time. The
communist symbol
Communist symbolism represents a variety of themes, including revolution, the proletariat, peasantry, agriculture, or international solidarity.
Communist states, parties and movements use these symbols to advance and create solidarity within ...
s of
hammer and sickle and the
red star were also regarded as totalitarian symbols and had the same restriction by Hungarian criminal law until 2013.
* In
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
, public display of Nazi and Soviet symbols, including the Nazi swastika, is prohibited in public events since 2013. However, in a court case from 2007 a regional court in Riga held that the swastika can be used as an ethnographic symbol, in which case the ban does not apply.
* In
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, public display of Nazi and Soviet symbols, including the Nazi swastika, is an administrative offence, punishable by a fine from 150 to 300
euros
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . T ...
. According to judicial practice, display of a non-Nazi swastika is legal.
* In Poland, public display of Nazi symbols, including the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
swastika, is a criminal offence punishable by up to eight years of imprisonment. The use of the swastika as a religious symbol is legal.
Attempted ban in the European Union
The
European Union's Executive Commission proposed a European Union-wide anti-racism law in 2001, but European Union states failed to agree on the balance between prohibiting racism and freedom of expression.
An attempt to ban the swastika across the EU in early 2005 failed after objections from the British Government and others. In early 2007, while Germany held the European Union presidency, Berlin proposed that the European Union should follow German Criminal Law and criminalise the
denial of the Holocaust and the display of Nazi symbols including the swastika, which is based on the Ban on the Symbols of Unconstitutional Organisations Act. This led to an opposition campaign by Hindu groups across Europe against a ban on the swastika. They pointed out that the swastika has been around for 5,000 years as a symbol of peace. The proposal to ban the swastika was dropped by Berlin from the proposed
European Union wide anti-racism laws on 29 January 2007.
Latin America
* The manufacture, distribution or broadcasting of the swastika, with the intent to propagate Nazism, is a crime in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
as dictated by article 20, paragraph 1, of federal statute 7.716, passed in 1989. The penalty is a two to five years prison term and a fine.
* The former flag of the
Guna Yala
Guna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is a '' comarca indígena'' (indigenous province) in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Gunas. Its capital is Gaigirgordub. It is bounded on the north by the Car ...
autonomous territory of
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
was based on a swastika design. In 1942 a ring was added to the centre of the flag to differentiate it from the symbol of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
(this version subsequently fell into disuse).
United States
The public display of
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
-era German flags (or any other flags) is protected by the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...
, which guarantees the right to
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
. The Nazi ''
Reichskriegsflagge
The term Reichskriegsflagge (, ) refers to several war flags and war ensigns used by the German armed forces in history. A total of eight different designs were used in 1848–1849 and between 1867–1871 and 1945.
Today the term refers usually ...
'' has also been seen on display at white supremacist events within United States borders, side by side with the
Confederate battle flag
The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...
.
In 2010 the
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
(ADL) downgraded the swastika from its status as a Jewish hate symbol, saying "We know that the swastika has, for some, lost its meaning as the primary symbol of Nazism and instead become a more generalised symbol of hate."
The ADL notes on their website that the symbol is often used as "shock graffiti" by juveniles, rather than by individuals who hold white supremacist beliefs, but it is still a predominant symbol amongst American white supremacists (particularly as a tattoo design) and used with anti-Semitic intention.
Australia
In 2022,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
was the first Australian state to ban the display of the Nazi's swastika. People who intentionally break this law will face a one-year jail sentence or A$22,000 (£12,300; $15,000) fine.
Media
In 2010,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
officially spoke out against use of the swastika by players of the
first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
''
Call of Duty: Black Ops''. In ''Black Ops'', players are allowed to customise their name tags to represent, essentially, whatever they want. The swastika can be created and used, but
Stephen Toulouse, director of
Xbox Live
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...
policy and enforcement, said players with the symbol on their name tag will be banned (if someone reports it as inappropriate) from Xbox Live.
In the ''
Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular'' in
Disney Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by Ma ...
in Orlando, Florida, the swastikas on German trucks, aircraft and actor uniforms in the reenactment of a scene from ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark
''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronal ...
'' were removed in 2004. The swastika has been replaced by a stylised
Greek cross
The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...
.
Swastika as distinct from ''hakenkreuz'' debate
Beginning in the early 2000s, partially as a reaction to the publication of a book titled ''The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?'' by
Steven Heller,
there has been a movement led in part by
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
,
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
,
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
,
Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
historians,
anthropologists
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and v ...
,
linguists
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, and other scholars to "reclaim" what was seen as 'their' swastika symbol "...until Hitler stole it."
These groups argue that the swastika is distinct from the Nazi symbol. A key part of this argument rests on the fact that Adolf Hitler referred to the symbol as a hooked cross (), which is the literal German language term for the symbol.
The main barrier to the effort to "reclaim", "restore", or "reassess" the swastika comes from the decades of extremely negative association in the Western world following the Nazi Party's adoption of it in the 1930s. As well,
white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
groups still cling to the symbol as an icon of power and identity. In defense of the swastika, Nama Winston writing for the
Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
has written that the swastika is "...less racist than racists think" and was "traditionally a symbol of peace and good fortune."
Many media organizations in the West also continue to describe neo-Nazi usage of the symbol as a swastika, or sometimes with the "Nazi" adjective written as "Nazi Swastika"
groups that oppose this media terminology do not wish to censor such usage, but rather to shift coverage of antisemitic and hateful events to describe the symbol in this context as a "" or "hooked cross".
Contemporary use
Asia
Central Asia
In 2005, authorities in
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
called for the widespread adoption of the swastika as a national
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
. President
Emomali Rahmonov
Emomali Rahmon (; born Emomali Sharipovich Rahmonov, tg, Эмомалӣ Шарӣпович Раҳмонов, script=Latn, italic=no, Emomalī Sharīpovich Rahmonov; ; born 5 October 1952) has been the 3rd President of Tajikistan since 16 Novem ...
declared the swastika an
Aryan symbol, and 2006 "the year of Aryan culture", which would be a time to "study and popularise Aryan contributions to the history of the world civilisation, raise a new generation (of Tajiks) with the spirit of national self-determination, and develop deeper ties with other ethnicities and cultures".
East and Southeast Asia
In
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
, the swastika is prevalent in Buddhist monasteries and communities. It is commonly found in Buddhist temples, religious artifacts, texts related to Buddhism and schools founded by Buddhist religious groups. It also appears as a design or motif (singularly or woven into a pattern) on textiles, architecture and various decorative objects as a symbol of luck and good fortune. The icon is also found as a sacred symbol in the Bon tradition, but in the left-facing orientation.
Many
Chinese religions
The People's Republic of China is officially an atheist state, but the government formally recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism are recognised separately), and Islam. In the early 21st ce ...
make use of the swastika symbol, including
Guiyidao and
Shanrendao. The
Red Swastika Society
The Red Swastika Society () is a voluntary association founded in China in 1922 by Qian Nengxun (錢能訓), Du Bingyin (杜秉寅) and Li Jiabai (李佳白). Together with the organisation's president Li JianChiu (李建秋), they set up their e ...
, formed in China in 1922 as the philanthropic branch of Guiyidao, became the largest supplier of emergency relief in China during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, in the same manner as the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
in the rest of the world. The Red Swastika Society abandoned mainland China in 1954, settling first in Hong Kong then in Taiwan. They continue to use the red swastika as their symbol.
In Japan, the swastika is also used as a
map symbol
A map symbol or cartographic symbol is a graphical device used to visually represent a real-world feature on a map, working in the same fashion as other forms of symbols. Map symbols may include point markers, lines, regions, continuous fields, ...
and is designated by the Survey Act and related Japanese governmental rules to denote a
Buddhist temple
A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...
. Japan has considered changing this symbols due to occasional controversy and misunderstanding by foreigners.
The symbol is sometimes censored in international versions of Japanese works, such as anime.
Censorship of this symbol in Japan and in Japanese media abroad has been subject to occasional controversy related to freedom-of-speech, with critics of the censorship arguing it does not respect history nor freedom of speech.
The city of
Hirosaki
is a city located in western Aomori Prefecture, Japan. On 1 April 2020, the city had an estimated population of 168,739 in 71,716 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is .
Hirosaki developed as a castle town fo ...
in
Aomori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the eas ...
designates this symbol as its official flag, which stemmed from its use in the emblem of the
Tsugaru clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northwestern half of what is now Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The Tsugaru were ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain and its semi-subsidiary, ...
, the lords of
Hirosaki Domain
Hirosaki Castle, the seat of the Hirosaki Domain
, also known as , was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period JapanRavina, Mark. (1998) ''Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan,'' p. 222 It is located in Mutsu Province, in northern Honsh ...
during the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
.
Among the predominantly Hindu population of
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
, in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, the swastika is common in temples, homes and public spaces. Similarly, the swastika is a common icon associated with Buddha's footprints in Theravada Buddhist communities of Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia.
File:Swastika-seoel (xndr).jpg, Swastika on a temple in Korea
File:Wanguo Daodehui.svg, Symbol of Shanrendao, a Confucian-Taoism religious movement in Northeast China
Northeast China or Northeastern China () is a geographical region of China, which is often referred to as "Manchuria" or "Inner Manchuria" by surrounding countries and the West. It usually corresponds specifically to the three provinces east of t ...
File:Red swastika flag.svg, Flag of the Red Swastika Society
The Red Swastika Society () is a voluntary association founded in China in 1922 by Qian Nengxun (錢能訓), Du Bingyin (杜秉寅) and Li Jiabai (李佳白). Together with the organisation's president Li JianChiu (李建秋), they set up their e ...
, the largest emergency relief group in China during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Indian subcontinent
In Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the swastika is common. Temples, businesses and other organisations, such as the Buddhist libraries,
Ahmedabad Stock Exchange
The Ahmedabad Stock Exchange (ASE) is the second oldest exchange of India located in the city of Ahmedabad in the Western part of the country and is fully owned by Government of India. It is recognised by Securities Contract (Regulations) Act, ...
and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce, use the swastika in reliefs or logos.
Swastikas are ubiquitous in Indian and Nepalese communities, located on shops, buildings, transport vehicles, and clothing. The swastika remains prominent in Hindu ceremonies such as weddings. The left facing ''sauwastika'' symbol is found in tantric rituals.
Musaeus College Musaeus, Musaios ( grc, Μουσαῖος) or Musäus may refer to:
Greek poets
* Musaeus of Athens, legendary polymath, considered by the Greeks to be one of their earliest poets (mentioned by Socrates in Plato's Apology)
* Musaeus of Ephesus, liv ...
in Colombo,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, a Buddhist girls' school, has a left facing swastika in their school logo.
In India, ''Swastik'' and ''Swastika'', with their spelling variants, are first names for males and females respectively, for instance with
Swastika Mukherjee. The
Emblem of Bihar
The Emblem of Bihar is the official logo of the government of the Indian state of Bihar.
Design
The emblem of Bihar depicts the Bodhi Tree with Prayer beads, flanked by two swastikas. The base of the tree is a brick with , Urdu for "Bih ...
contains two swastikas.
In Bhutan, swastika motif is found in its architecture, fabric and religious ceremonies.
Europe and North America
Use by neo-Nazis
As with many
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
groups across the world, the
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise Nation ...
used the swastika as part of its flag before its first dissolution in 1967. The symbol was chosen by the organisation's founder,
George Lincoln Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was an American far-right political activist and founder of the American Nazi Party. He later became a major figure in the neo-Nazi movement in the United States, and his beliefs, st ...
. It was "re-used" by successor organisations in 1983, without the publicity Rockwell's organisation enjoyed.
The swastika, in various iconographic forms, is one of the hate symbols identified in use as
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
in US schools, and is described as such in a 1999 US Department of Education document, "Responding to Hate at School: A Guide for Teachers, Counselors and Administrators", edited by Jim Carnes, which provides advice to educators on how to support students targeted by such hate symbols and address hate graffiti. Examples given show that it is often used alongside other white supremacist symbols, such as those of the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
, and note a
"three-bladed" variation used by
skinheads
A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...
, white supremacists, and "
some South African extremist groups".
The neo-Nazi
Russian National Unity
Russian National Unity (RNU; transcribed Russkoe natsionalnoe edinstvo RNE) or All-Russian civic patriotic movement "Russian National Unity" (russian: Всероссийское общественное патриотическое движен ...
group's branch in
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
is officially registered under the name "Kolovrat" and published an extremist newspaper in 2001 under the same name.
A criminal investigation found the paper included an array of racial epithets. One Narva resident was sentenced to one year in jail for distribution of ''Kolovrat''. The Kolovrat has since been used by the Rusich Battalion, a Russian militant group known for its operation during the
war in Donbas
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
.
File:Flag of the American Nazi Party.svg, Flag of the American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party (ANP) is an American far-right and neo-Nazi political party founded by George Lincoln Rockwell and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The organization was originally named the World Union of Free Enterprise Nation ...
File:Blason du National Socialist Movement usa.svg, Logo of the National Socialist Movement National Socialist Movement may refer to:
* Nazi Party, a political movement in Germany
* National Socialist Movement (UK, 1962), a British neo-Nazi group
* National Socialist Movement (United Kingdom), a British neo-Nazi group active during the lat ...
(U.S.)
File:Russian National Unity Emblem.svg, Logo of the Russian National Unity
Russian National Unity (RNU; transcribed Russkoe natsionalnoe edinstvo RNE) or All-Russian civic patriotic movement "Russian National Unity" (russian: Всероссийское общественное патриотическое движен ...
Western misinterpretation of Asian use
Since the end of the 20th century, and through the early 21st century, confusion and controversy has occurred when personal-use goods bearing the traditional Jain, Buddhist, or Hindu symbols have been exported to the West, notably to North America and Europe, and have been interpreted by purchasers as bearing a Nazi symbol. This has resulted in several such products having been boycotted or pulled from shelves.
When a ten-year-old boy in
Lynbrook, New York, bought a set of
Pokémon cards imported from Japan in 1999, two of the cards contained the left-facing Buddhist swastika. The boy's parents misinterpreted the symbol as the right-facing Nazi swastika and filed a complaint to the manufacturer.
Nintendo of America
is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing card ...
announced that the cards would be discontinued, explaining that what was acceptable in one culture was not necessarily so in another; their action was welcomed by the
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
who recognised that there was no intention to offend, but said that international commerce meant that, "Isolating
he Swastika
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
in Asia would just create more problems."
In 2002,
Christmas crackers containing plastic toy red pandas sporting swastikas were pulled from shelves after complaints from customers in Canada. The manufacturer, based in China, said the symbol was presented in a traditional sense and not as a reference to the Nazis, and apologised to the customers for the cross-cultural mixup.
In 2020, the retailer
Shein pulled a necklace featuring a left-facing swastika pendant from its website after receiving backlash on social media. The retailer apologized for the lack of sensitivity but noted that the swastika was a Buddhist symbol.
New religious movements
Besides its use as a religious symbol in
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
and
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...
, which can be traced back to pre-modern traditions, the swastika is also used by adherents of a large number of
new religious movements
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...
which were established in the modern period.
Theosophy
In the 1880s the U.S.origined
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
adopted a swastika as part of its seal, along with an
Om, a hexagram or
star of David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
, an
Ankh
Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene.
This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...
and an
Ouroboros
The ouroboros or uroboros () is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition. It was adopted as a symbol in Gnost ...
. Unlike the much more recent
Raëlian movement, the Theosophical Society symbol has been free from controversy, and the seal is still used. The current seal also includes the text "There is no religion higher than truth."
Raëlism
The
Raëlian Movement, whose adherents believe extraterrestrials created all life on earth, use a symbol that is often the source of considerable controversy: an interlaced
star of David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
and a swastika. The Raelians say the Star of David represents infinity in space whereas the swastika represents infinity in timeno beginning and no end in time, and everything being cyclic. In 1991, the symbol was changed in order to remove the swastika, out of respect to the victims of
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
, but as of 2007 it has been restored to its original form.
Ananda Marga
The
Tantra
Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the Indian ...
-based new religious movement
Ananda Marga
Ānanda Mārga ("The Path of Bliss", also spelled Anand Marg and Ananda Marg) or officially Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha (organization for the propagation of the path of bliss), is a world-wide socio-spiritual organisation founded in J ...
(Devanagari: आनन्द मार्ग, meaning Path of Bliss) uses a motif similar to the Raëlians, but in their case the apparent star of David is defined as intersecting triangles with no specific reference to Jewish culture.
Falun Gong
The
Falun Gong
Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a new religious movement.Junker, Andrew. 2019. ''Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora'', pp. 23–24, 33, 119 ...
qigong
''Qigong'' (), ''qi gong'', ''chi kung'', ''chi 'ung'', or ''chi gung'' () is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation
used for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial-arts training. With roots in ...
movement uses a symbol that features a large swastika surrounded by four smaller (and rounded) ones, interspersed with
yin-and-yang symbols.
Heathenry
The swastika is a holy symbol in
neopagan Germanic Heathenry
Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th centu ...
, along with the
hammer of Thor and
runes
Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...
. This traditionwhich is found in Scandinavia, Germany, and elsewhereconsiders the swastika to be derived from a Norse symbol for the sun. Their use of the symbol has led people to accuse them of being a neo-Nazi group.
Baltic neopaganism
A "fire cross" ("
ugunskrusts
Ugunskrusts ( Latvian for 'Fire Cross'; other names — ''Cross of Fire'', '' Pērkonkrusts (Cross of Thunder (Thunder Cross))'', ''Cross of Perun (Cross of Perkūnas)'', ''Cross of Branches'', ''Cross of Laima'') is the swastika as a symbol ...
") is used by the
Baltic neopaganism
Baltic neopaganism is a category of autochthonous religious movements which have revitalised within the Baltic people (primarily Lithuanians and Latvians).Wiench 1995 These movements trace their origins back to the 19th century and they were sup ...
movements
Dievturība
Dievturība is a neopagan movement which is a modern revival of the ethnic religion of the Latvians before Christianization in the 13th century. Adherents call themselves Dievturi (singular: Dievturis), literally "Dievs' keepers", "people who l ...
in
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
and
Romuva in
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
.
Slavic Native Faith
A variant of the swastika, the non-traditional eight-armed ''kolovrat'' ("spinning wheel"), is the most commonly used religious symbol within neopagan
Slavic Native Faith
The Slavic Native Faith, commonly known as Rodnovery
* bg, Родноверие, translit=Rоdnoverie
* bs, Rodnovjerje
* mk, Родноверие, translit=Rodnoverie
* cz, Rodnověří
* hr, Rodnovjerje
* pl, Rodzimowierstwo; Rodzima ...
(a.k.a. Rodnovery).
See also
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Z (military symbol)
The Latin-script letter Z ( rus, зет, p=zɛt, r=zet) is one of several symbols (including "V" and "O") painted on military vehicles of the Russian Armed Forces involved in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is speculated that the Z hel ...
– sometimes called a zwastika
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*
*
History of the Swastika''(US Holocaust Memorial Museum)''
The Origins of the Swastika''BBC News''
*
{{Authority control
Buddhist symbols
Cross symbols
Crosses in heraldry
Hindu symbols
Jain symbols
Magic symbols
Nazi symbolism
Religious symbols
Rotational symmetry
Symbols of Indian religions
Symbols of Nazi Germany
Talismans
Visual motifs